ACTIVE LOCAL /// Schools
SEVENTH HEAVEN FOR OAKHAM HOCKEY TEAMS Oakham’s hockey players have swept the board at the County Championships with all seven teams progressing to the regional finals, with six teams being crowned County Cup winners. Most impressively, the girls’ 1st XI (U18 team) were crowned County Champions for the eighth year running, winning against Welbeck College, Loughborough and Uppingham. They also secured their place as indoor County Champions. The girls’ U16 team also won all of their matches (against Ratcliffe, Welland Park, Loughborough, Uppingham and Leicester Grammar) to take the top spot for the second year running. They also took the indoor county crown, again winning all of their matches. Not to be outdone, the U18 and U16 boys’ squads are also County Champions and both through to the regional finals. This is in addition to the U18s’ recent success
Le Oakham’s winning county hockey team
HAYDEN IN DUATHLON FINALS at the Independent School Festival where they beat Millfield (4-3), Whitgift (3-0) and Ipswich (4-3). “For all of our teams to progress to the regional tournaments is a fantastic achievement,” said director of hockey James Bateman. Elsewhere at Oakham, the U14, U16 and U19 netball teams have all
secured their places in the England Netball National Schools Competition. Both the U19 and the U14 teams remained unbeaten, while the U19s won seven of their eight matches. All teams will now be playing at the Grand Team Netball Leicestershire Finals taking place on December 7 in Leicester.
STAMFORD SCORES HIGHLY IN ISI REPORT Stamford Endowed Schools were inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) and were rated as ‘excellent’ (the highest level of achievement) in five out of six reports and ‘good’ in the other. Academic achievement was recognised across the board as well as the outstanding pastoral care. Will Phelan, SES principal, said: “These achievements are the result of the Stamford community working together. Whilst we are naturally
delighted with our academic achievements, I am especially proud of the less tangible aspects such as ethos and strong core values, that have become synonymous with our students: this is a culture by which we live and work and testament to the hard work by the whole Stamford community.” Also, the school has recently announced its commitment to continue to provide more seven year bursaries for children.
COPTHILL IN ACTION Copthill School’s U9 and U11 gymnastic teams competed at the National Two Piece competition which is also a qualifying event for the Premier National Five Piece Competition in March. The U11s had an extremely tough competition as there were 17 teams in their section and 83 girls. Ivy Kettlewell finished in 12th place while Felicity Branton also had a personal best competition. The U9’s were next up and started on set floor. Ava Turner did extremely well in completing a handspring vault and Lucy Richardson overcame a block on vault to compete a squat through vault. The team consisting of Lexie Smith, Flo Cavacuiti, Lucy Richardson, Ava Turner and Elsie Brownlow finished in sixth place with Elsie as the highest placed Copthill girl in 14th. As a result the U9s and the U11s have qualified for the Premier National Finals.
Local duathlete Hayden Greaves has won a place in the Great Britain under 20s side for the European Duathlon Championships, which will be held in Ibiza. Hayden, who goes to school at Oakham, qualified to represent GB a er placing fourth in the qualifier at Oulton Park. He also came first in his age group (15/16) and was ranked 29th out of the 500 competitors overall. He finished the duathlon in a time of 1 hour 4 mins. Trefon Vandoros, Oakham’s director of athletics said: “I’m incredibly proud of his achievement. His level of focus, discipline and sacrifice is outstanding and he fully deserves this.”
NATIONAL SUCCESS FOR BROOKE GYMNASTS Brooke Priory was the only local school to take part in the recent London Festival of Gymnastics at the Brentwood Arena. The gymnasts performed a four minute floor routine to an audience of more than 1,000, with the youngest member of the squad only six years old. After that, entered four teams entered the Independent Schools Gymnastics Association National 2 Piece Championships. The U9 girls’ team performed particularly well with Jessica Ford achieving individual sixth place overall and the team achieving fourth place out of 10 national teams.
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